The present invention relates to a computer mouse for entering data into a computer and more particularly to a computer mouse which has a slider control which regulates the scrolling of an image on a display screen of a computer.
The ubiquitous computer mouse has considerably enhanced the productivity of computer users. The functions and operations of a computer mouse are well known in the art and will not be repeated herein. However, some control functions of the computer which the mouse is capable of performing require conjunctive action such as the operation of a selection switch on the mouse coupled with movement of the mouse (so called drag and drop function) in order to scroll or move images on a computer screen. This conjunctive action is sometimes awkward for novice computer users or small children. Accordingly, efforts have been made to simplify the operations which a user is required to perform in order to have the mouse perform a scrolling operation.
Once such effort is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,455. This patent discloses a computer mouse having a roller ball thereon which is operable by a computer user to scroll a display image. However, a roller can be continued to be rotated far beyond a desired scrolled image on the screen thus potentially providing an incorrect or awkward scrolling function for a user. Accordingly, a simplified mechanism for scrolling a computer image would be desirable.
The invention provides a simplified mechanism for scrolling a mouse which employs a slider which slides along a body of a mouse and which is easily maneuvered by a finger of a user to scroll an image and without requiring a conjunctive operation of a selection switch and movement of the mouse body.
The slider, which moves relative to the mouse body, provides data signals representing the amount of movement of the slider relative to the mouse body as well as a direction of movement of the slider. This data is in turn provided to a mouse driver which interprets the data and provides scrolling data to an operating system of the computer which controls image scrolling.
With the invention a user merely needs to move the slider in a first or second direction to control scrolling in an upward or downward direction and can control the rate of scrolling by the amount of movement of the slider from its rest position.
These and other advantages and features of the invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the invention which is provided in connection with the accompanying drawings.